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Camp Constantine is an underground training facility located in a remote part of Montgomery County, near Pottstown. The camp aspect is literal. Its aboveground facilities consist of numerous cabins, a lake, a mess hall with showers, and operates under the guise as a sleep-away camp for adults. That all of those adults are part of the local Quiver goes without saying.
The underground portion is where the majority of work in Adamant Hand and magical combat takes place. The whole of the camp is incredibly spartan, and apart from three squares, a roof, a shower, and a place to 'do your business' the amenities of the place are exceptionally basic. Given the resources available to the caucus, this appears to be by design. People do not come here for comfort or an easy life, they come to train among the most determined individuals in the world.]
Yoshitsune and Esther are present already, seated facing one another over a large wooden Go board, a massive solid block of wood, really, with round feet, and at this point nearing half covered in white and black stones. Esther is staring at the board in contemplation while Yoshitsune relaxes back on his ankles, legs curled up beneath himself in familiar and comfortable repose.
On a rickety folding card table is an elaborate Japanese tea service, steaming hot. The pair have already served themselves, and Yoshi is presently sipping his loudly while Esther tries to concentrate.
"Master, you are doing that on purpose."
"Winning? I should hope so."
"Slurping."
"Slurping in victory."
Dandelion shows up at Camp Constantine, wearing her sword (a rather plain, but well-kept khopesh) at her side. She's dressed in a leather jacket, t-shirt and jeans, and as usual when she shows up here, her hair is bunned and pinned up out of her face. She seems to have a thoughtful, serious look on her face, as she enters the underground. But as she sees Esther and Yoshitsune, she walks closer to study the board and see how badly Esther's getting her ass whupped.
Little Fox comes padding in with Mei in tow. Padding in, that's actually very accurate, really, because she arrives as a fox! As soon as she spots the Go board, Esther and Yoshitsune, he bounds away from Mei, hop hop hop! Zooming around the room's edge, she comes to a stop about three feet to Yoshitsune's left and arches their back up, tail floofed. Ears up. Bright and shiny.
Surprising to precisely nobody, Liezel makes her appearance, dressed in belted, drab khakis tucked into combat boots paired with a simple tanktop. Her satchel's over her shoulder, and she ends up on Dandelion's heels, heading towards the Go board and peering at it, trying to make sense of the game. Fox arrives, and she smiles faintly, as she does too if she gets Dandy's attention.
Beowulf enters after Liezel, carrying a glass tube full of slightly squished rat under one arm. He is dressed in heavy jeans, sturdy boots, and a plain white t-shirt with his long hair drawn back into a loose pony tail.
If her Master thinks there's somewhere Mei ought to go, or someone she ought to meet, or something that she ought to learn, she's putting her trust in that decision. So it is that she's being lead into the stronghold of the Adamantine Arrow by a fox. She looks a little uncertain right up until the point when she sees a familiar face, and oddly enough, seeing Liezel seems to give her some comfort. She mostly just follows her Master, though.
Yoshitsune looks to the fox with a squint of his dark eyes, bushy brows meeting together on his forehead. He rises from his crouch properly, turns to the fox, and offers it a deep bow that does not break eye contact before resuming his seat a second time, once more resting himself back on his haunches. "Kitsune." He gestures with an open palm towards the table, "There is tea." Which he demonstrates by sipping it loudly, and in a prolonged fashion at Esther until she finally loses her patience and sets down a stone. At which point Yoshitsune clucks his tongue, shaking his head in disappointment.
Which causes Esther to roll her eyes and sigh in exasperation, "You're no fun, master. Honestly."
"I am enjoying myself immensely. It is you who are not having fun, Esther." He leans over the board, drops a white stone on an intersection, and begins collecting several surrounded black stones while see-sawing his head back and forth in amusement. "Resign, then. And may you lose your first thousand games quickly."
With a crowd coming in, she offers Yoshitsune a bow and admits defeat while he gloats over the stones he's mopping up. She rises and turns to the new arrivals, "Thank you for coming to my Waterloo. There is tea." She, too, gestures to the tea.
Liezel easily gets Dandelion's attention, her pace slowing so she can arrive at the board alongside the Moros. "Well, my girl? There's an awful lot going on these days. How are you handling?"
And then she looks up at Beowulf. "Tell me that thing's not alive, please?" That doesn't seem to be 'I'm squeamish about rats' in general, more a specific concern about if this one is.
Muninn slips in to the grand affair with, if possible, the opposite of pomp. He shuffles in with his messenger bag crosswise across his lanky body, dressed in a t-shirt with a building schematic of the Death Star on it. Shoes of checkered canvas. Unassuming, his long fingers tap and fidget together, and his bright eyes are on constant alert behind his large spectacles.
Beowulf shakes his head. "I wouldnt bring something from a Rat Host into the Consilium if it was alive." He takes a seat near the back, in consideration of not blocking anyone's view.
Fox pounces -- the air, not the man himself -- but the thought is there. There's a specific word for the sound that foxes make when they're playing, and it's gekkering. That's what Fox is doing now. Delighted sharp little sounds, rat-a-tat vocalizations, and she pap pap pap bats at Yoshitsune's feet. Then she turns toward the proffered tea, and noses at it. I can't pour tea while I'm a fox, she whines, if there's literally anyone who can understand her. And then a little bit more gekkering-greeting in Esther's direction, a happy thing.
"That's good. Even a single live rat can cause a whole new host infection, after all." She smiles at Beowulf. "I've been doing some research, on those."
Mei, who happens to be able to understand foxes at the moment because they were talking as they walked up, moves over to where the tea is, sits down beside the overly energetic fox in a seiza position, and pours a cup of tea for the fox. "Thank you for your hospitality, Adamant Sage," she says with a polite bow at the waist. "Thunderbolt Guardian," she adds with another bow for Esther. When that's done, she puts the teacup down for Little Fox. "I'm Parhelion, Revontulet's apprentice." She pours tea for herself next.
Liezel smiles faintly at Yoshitsune's well-wishing- a thousand games, indeed- and moves to take tea when she's invited. There's a fox present when she does, and she pauses, taking a moment to realize that Fox hasn't any thumbs just now, and simply takes it upon herself to start pouring tea for all and sundy (save Mei and Fox, obvs), starting with Dandelion, if she'll take a cup- then anyone else, Yoshitsune and Esther obviously included, and finishing with a glass for herself. She doesn't miss that slight relaxation on Mei's part, and that earns her another tiny smile as she goes about her tea-pouring business and replies to Dandelion.
"I am well, so far. Picking up new responsibilities. This, Y'israel- you've met Y'israel, right, Auntie?" Muninn and Beowulf arrive and she glances them over. "Rat Host- is... that the mysterious thing responsible for the disappearances and the sulfur smells?"
Mei, who happens to be able to understand foxes at the moment because they were talking as they walked up, moves over to where the tea is, sits down beside the overly energetic fox in a seiza position, and pours a cup of tea for the fox. "Thank you for your hospitality, Adamant Sage," she says with a polite bow at the waist. "Thunderbolt Guardian," she adds with another bow for Esther. When that's done, she puts the teacup down for Little Fox. "I'm Parhelion, Revontulet's apprentice." She pours tea for herself next.
Liezel smiles faintly at Yoshitsune's well-wishing- a thousand games, indeed- and moves to take tea when she's invited. There's a fox present when she does, and she pauses, taking a moment to realize that Fox hasn't any thumbs just now, and simply takes it upon herself to start pouring tea for all and sundy (save Mei and Fox, obvs), starting with Dandelion, if she'll take a cup- then anyone else, Yoshitsune and Esther obviously included, and finishing with a glass for herself. She doesn't miss that slight relaxation on Mei's part, and that earns her another tiny smile as she goes about her tea-pouring business and replies to Dandelion.
"I am well, so far. Picking up new responsibilities. This, Y'israel- you've met Y'israel, right, Auntie?" Muninn and Beowulf arrive and she glances them over. "Rat Host- is... that the mysterious thing responsible for the disappearances and the sulfur smells?"
Beowulf smiles back at Dandelion. "Yeah, they're nasty little buggers. Still, I'll take them over the Spider Hosts any day of the week." He nods at Liezel's question. "Yeah, and they've got an extensive network under the city, apparently."
"I've met Yisra'el. You're taking responsibility for him now?" Her eyebrows both raise. "Big step."
And then she turns back to Beowulf again, nodding. "That means there's a lot of work, in terms of extermination, to do."
Esther takes her fresh tea and returns to kneel down beside Mei after returning the other woman's bow, offering the new maga a smile of welcome and a brief squeeze of the hand with her own. Her focus is on the conversation and on Yoshitsune, however, for the most part.
Yoshitsune also bows to Mei respectfully when such respect is shown to him, though he strides towards Beowulf and his dead rat purposefully, staring at it, then at the man, then turning to regard Dandelion thoughtfully. "Share what you have learned, Talon." He accepts his own tea with a grateful little bow, and then takes a sip. A quiet one.
Esther rolls her eyes again and complains quietly to Mei, "I knew it."
The fox, having had tea poured for him, settles down and sniffs the cup set on the floor with a very delicate air. Revontulet laps at the tea with a ridiculous amount of grace. Sip sip sip. She places one of their black paws on either side of the cup and lets out another little burst of gekkering. It's the right choice, that Aaron should have an Arrow mentor. An Aarow mentor? Something. Her head turns toward the thing that Beowulf brought in, and her green-gold eyes blink slowly.
Quinn edges closer to Liezel, Beowulf, and the jarred rat. His gaze swivels between speakers near constantly, absorbing what he can from this situation and these conversations. Once the Adamant Sage turns attention to Dandelion, Quinn does too; both spindly hands twine around the strap of his messenger bag.
"Thank you for the floor, Adamant Sage." She stands a little straighter. "The Rat Hosts are a merging of flesh and spirit. Once, Hosts were incredibly powerful, ancient spirits, and escaped being hunted down by shattering themselves into thousands of spirit shards, and those shards infected other living, physical creatures, sometimes even humans, as with the Rat Hosts. They start as rats, but eventually take control of a human being by gnawing through its ribcage and eating its heart. This process, of merging and joining warps and profanes the manifest flesh, making it vile and rotted. When the physical corpus--the embodied form--of the Rat Host is exhausted, and it's sustained enough damage to expire, it will discorporate into a teeming hive of rats that burst forth from the corpse. If even a single one escapes, the spirit of the Rat Host survives, and it will take a new body. This means that fights need to take place in a space with no escape route for the rats, or we're just chasing our own tail."
She speaks clearly, gesturing as she talks, interlacing her fingers to show the idea of 'merging', spreading her hands with fingers outstretched suddenly to express the rats bursting forth.
Mei answers Esther's comment with a shrug. "It brings to mind, for me, the story of Miyamoto Musashi and his duel with Yoshioka Seijuro, where he arrived late on purpose to anger his opponent in order to be sure that Yoshioka would react with emotion instead of calculation." She offers Esther a smile, then looks at the Fox and says, "you're probably right, if Aaron thinks this is where he belongs."
And then she listens.
Beowulf meets Yoshitsune's gaze levelly. After Dandelion finishes, he speaks up. "Not only that, but they gnaw through the barrier between the real world and the Shadow, attracting disease spirits and all kinds of other nasty things."
Quinn's attention is devoted entirely to Dandelion by now. He listens in rapt fascination, glancing to Beowulf when the mage speaks as well. "It seems, well, that it would follow patterns of a virus and attract disease spirits, because the rat host sounds like it acts similar to a disease - infect the host, take it over, expel itself to infect more. Fascinating. I am disappointed to hear of their effect on the Gauntlet but that can be fixed, that can be fixed." He fidgets from one foot to the other, looking somewhere in the vicinity of Dandelion's knees.
"The disease spirits are, in some ways, easier to deal with. You can't abjure or exorcise the Hosts, as they're things-of-flesh as well as spirit." She shakes her head slightly, then looks at Quinn in turn, studying him curiously, like a teacher being told a new student's to be added to her class.
Sip. Sip sip. The Orphan of Proteus slowly looks off to one side, past Mei, and casually sets their head on one of their paws. Orphans aren't typically known for their prowess with Spirit.
Yoshitsune strokes his chin as Dandelion speaks, watching her intently. She receives a single sharp nod when she concludes. Esther, in the meantime, just smiles up at Dandelion in clear approval. "Very good, Talon," she offers as encouragement. "I trust everyone caught that. I imagine that is as true of the spirit shard in each rat as it is of the physical rat that contained it? If we kill the rats, the spirit shards go free? Or no?"
Yoshitsune asks another question of Dandelion, "Sun Tzu wrote of nine grounds, Talon. Do you recall which ground it is that you seek to draw your enemy upon for battle?" He then looks aside to Beowulf, giving another sharp nod. "Very good. We can arm a Volley with ephemeral weapons. Burn the disease from the world."
He seems content to avert his gaze, still rocking idly from foot to foot. "Is there a known method of parting the spirit from the unwilling flesh? No abjuration, no exorcism, that is unfortunate. But perhaps another method, I do not proclaim to be an expert but I do like the Shadow very much." He pauses. "It likes me back."
"It is," Liezel confirms regarding Y'israel being a huge responsibility. Dandelion can likely see the faint uncertainty in her eyes, but she's doing her best- it really is a sensible move. Fox agrees, it's just not something she can interpret, and Fox's hilariously delicate consumption of tea is amusing, leaving Liezel smiling quietly while Dandelion is called up to share what she knows.
She listens and considers all the things being said, fixating on the statement that if one live rat escapes, the spirit lives. "Well. A little Space would ensure that the Host couldn't escape- then it's a matter of ensuring the swarm dies. Ordinarily, I'd lean towards flame, but- they left the scent of sulfur, last I heard, and that leaves me concerned for the possibility of gas or coal residue in their tunnels."
"I know there is a way to remove a spirit using Death- I imagine a similar trick could be used with Spirit. It'd be a third circle trick if it works the same way."
"Because of the way the flesh is warped by the spirit shards, I don't think separating them is going to be effective. Even if you could, the physical-side remnants will never again be the human that they were. You can't unbake a cake." She shakes her head slightly, then looks up at Yoshitsune with a crooked smile. "Deadly ground, Adamant Sage."
Mei reaches over and idly scratches the fox behind the ears, not even really thinking about it before she does it. Other than that she just listens, taking the opportunity to watch and learn without interfering.
And even if you could, if the spirit has eaten the heart, once it has gone past that moment... it has no heart anymore, that person. To regenerate the heart in a long-term fashion... no. The victims are dead. Lots of little whines from Little Fox. Apprentices are for translating, did you know? She doesn't seem to mind the ear-scritches, and laps at her tea.
"The spirit isnt in the human body anyway. It's in the rats. And there are coal remnants in the tunnels, but the other reason we shouldnt use fire is diplomatic. The vampires also somehow stumbled onto this, probably looking for food." Beowulf says the word vampire like it leaves a bitter taste in his mouth.
"I do not know if it would be helpful," Quinn murmurs, "But is it known what the host's Bane is? If there is a bane, we can use it both to corral the spirits an dispose of them. And...and...and if it is underground, we can use water. Drown the rats. No worry of explosion then."
After saying "Little Fox says," Mei proceeds to translate what Little Fox said.
"I'm hoping my continued research will turn up information on banes--I will continue to look into the matter. As for the vampires, I met a few of them last night. As well as another psychic medium who's entangled with the matter. I will be offering my guidance and advice to them, as well as I can."
Another psychic medium, because of course she is one as well as a Sleepwalker.
Yoshitsune lifts his chin haughtily and barks a scoffing laugh at Dandelion's answer. Which is a sure indication she has pleased him, paradoxically. "I will stump you yet, Talon." His hands drift behind his back as he walks back over towards his Go board, sweeping the sorted stones into their respective bowls. Clearing the board, as it were. He lays out three black stones nearly surrounding a white stone.
"So how do we bring an abomination of flesh and spirit willingly to a space with no escape. A guantlet as thick as granite. No nooks, no crannies, no escape. Simply the serenity of an end?" He places the final stone to surround and close the eye, plucking up the white stone and tossing it across the room-- suddenly and at full velocity --at Beowulf. Think fast.
"I can help," Quinn pipes up eagerly, fingers drumming on the strap of his bag. "I can help with that, if you like, I am very good at researching things, particularly of the Shadow and I'm a Shaman, you know, so I could ask the others if they can tell me anything useful, if that would help. If you like." He's smiling, lower lip caught between his teeth.
Beowulf catches the thrown go piece with almost practiced ease. He considers it carefully for a moment, before walking forward and placing it back in its spot. "Banes to herd it, bait to lure it. Like a boar hunt, almost."
Liezel considers the question posed by Yoshitsune, perking up abruptly as the various facts flit through her head. "Wait, a moment. The original hosts are dead. Is the body that remains a corpse? Or just a new form of twisted life?" Her eyes track the thrown piece and Beowulf's path to replace it.
"As for how to get it to someplace with no nooks, crannies or escapes?" She shrugs. "We make it think that it's driving something else someplace from which it can't escape. Like tricking a foe into driving you into a box canyon you already control, into which they'd never go normally."
A little huff from the fox at Liezel's suggestions. Make it flee or make it chase, Fox agrees. These are the ways that we hunt.
"We are all saying the same thing," Quinn murmurs quietly; his shoulders hunch and he lapses into an attentive silence.
"Little Fox agrees with you," Mei says to Liezel. "I also will admit to not having an understanding of Space, or of the Adept and Master practices at all, but it does seem like, in theory, someone with enough talent with Space might be able to make whatever battleground you encounter them on one that has no exits, perhaps? It seems to me like the kind of thing Veiling might be able to do, at least on the surface."
"You're absolutely correct," murmurs Liezel to Mei. "There is, in fact, a Space spell to do precisely that for anything primarily intended for travel. Doors, driveways, halls- it can hide them completely. That was an excellent guess." She tilts her head. "I think there is also one to make someone think the best path is the path you want them on?"
She also smiles brightly at Fox. Affirmation is a hell of a drug.
"With someone a bit more skilled in Space, someone could possibly also turn the space into...what's that. The bottle thing in math." She looks at Quinn as if he'd be the one to know the answer. "Like a Mobius strip, but spacier."
"A klein bottle," Quinn murmurs, almost on reflex.
Yoshitsune lets out another scoffing laugh at Beowulf not being belted by his stones. "Luck," he assures the arrow, fully in jest. Not that any who don't know him well could tell, really. His attention returns to the others, then, resuming the stroking of his beard.
"I can perform some divination. Perhaps walk in the mists and seek for answers there. But I am afraid ephemeral entities such as these are not my area of expertise whatsoever," Esther finally pipes up about matters. She seems content to let Yoshitsune massage the brains of the room for the moment.
Which Yoshi does, "It will seek to escape if you confront it. If it must fight you, it will seek to do so on favorable ground. If it cannot fight you on favorable ground, and it cannot escape you, it will die. I remain unclear if destroying the physical host and the physical rats that explode from it will also destroy the spirits driving it? If not, Space will not be sufficient. We would need to control the Gauntlet and Twilight in whatever location we confront it on. It would seem answering that question is essential to setting the trap. Or am I mistaken?"
"Your words are wise, Adamant Sage," Liezel acknowledges, nodding in agreement, and then moves to answer his question. "It was suggested by the good Talon," Liezel reminds, "-that the manner of the twisting of the flesh means that the spirits are no longer free of their warped bodies. Which is why we have all these actual rats around-" She gestures to Beowulf's show-and-tell. "-instead of having seen the body collapse while we speak of a horde of rat spirits instead. Is that accurate, based on what we know so far? I believe it was said earlier that so long as all the splintered hosts are slain, the spirit perishes?"
A pause. "Do we know how many of these things we need to trap and exterminate? Is there just the one? Or more than that?"
That would seem to be essential in setting the trap, yes. And the little vulpine shape stretches slowly and then flops across its apprentice's lap. This would be strange if she were human-shaped.
Yoshitsune looks to Dandelion for confirmation, "Is that so? Will destroying the host rat destroy the infecting spirit shard?"
Mei offers Liezel a grateful smile when she gets confirmation that she was relatively on target, but then returns to listening so that she can pick up more information, and learn from the experience of the others around her.
"Thank you." That's to Quinn for providing the right word. "I knew you'd have it."
Then Yoshitsune's question gets addressed "I still need to continue my research into the matter--I'm planning to deep dive everything I can on the topic, but what I read heavily implied that killing all the rats that resulted from the explosion of the corpus of a single rat host would render that specific host unable to spread anymore--and that even one escaping would mean it would continue to...reproduce?"
Quinn ducks his head at the Talon, a furtive smile lighting his features. His gaze ticks to one side, drawn by the Go board.
Beowulf nods in affirmation of Dandelions words, ignoring Yoshitsune's insinuation of luck.
"Muninn. You mentioned having a talent for research. You will assist Talon Dandelion in her research. Into the Bane, and into whether or not-- for certain --destroying the body will destroy the spirit. We must know our enemy if it is to be defeated. On that point, I believe we may all agree." Yoshitsune looks to the others, "Space will, hopefully, be our solution to this problem. Those of you who are Adepts or Masters should begin constructing and considering Imagos and Practices you might employ to create such a..." He glances to Quinn, "Klein bottle?" New to him, clearly. "In an area suitable for combat of the sort necessary to destroy a swarm of infected rats. Consideration should be taken to ensure we are not made hosts in the doing. Protection from their Numen, and so on. So, too, protection from their poisons and diseases. Once we know our enemies, we must know ourselves and what we will be able to accomplish. Then?" He once more plucks up the white stone, "The serenity of an end."
Liezel blinks abruptly. "... I wonder. Kassiterum- Perfected Tin- leeches Essence rapidly from any ephemeral creature in contact with it. I wonder if Kassiterum arrowheads or bullets could perhaps inflict the same debilitating onto a Host. Perhaps not- it is flesh... but perhaps its spirit nature will be tie enough to render it vulnerable. If I can get some copper, as well, I can make trinkets of Brontium that offer significant resistance to any debilitating effects like poisons and diseases.They could be small- I could make as many as needed, so long as the copper was provided."
Quinn nods vigorously to the Sage's order; his expression betrays him. He is thrilled to death at the idea of homework. Without a reply, he sits down and opens his messenger bag. Drawing out a large, handbound book, Quinn carefully pulls out a page and gets to work on some sort of object. He folds and tears in certain places carefully, hunting in his bag for a little roll of masking tape to secure rolled and folded paper into something that looks like a milk carton with a loop coming out of it. "Forgive me, this is impromptu work - but this is a klein bottle. An endless surface folded in such a way that it is impossible to determine a vector, completely non-orientable. It is a method to fold space. As a trap, it would be...well. Unparalleled."
"Any Apprentice of Life should be able to help with protection from disease and poison, as well," Mei points out to Liezel. "Having both options at hand might be useful?"
"... was that a geometry joke?"
She looks over Quinn's shoulder at what he's made, and grins. "Yes, that's what I was talking about. In short, a spatial mindfuck. Oh, I'm going to look forward to working with you, if you can follow where my mind's going. I'm Dandelion, as the Adamant Sage said. Muninn?"
Quinn beams at Liezel, dissolving into a snickering giggle. He looks somewhere near Liezel's shoulder, nodding. "It was a geometry joke," he confirms. He unfurls his gangly limbs to stand once again, turning to Dandelion; his hands fidget and twist together, two excited spiders. "I'm Muninn, that's me, yes. I'm very, very excited to work with you, I'm not sure if you recall but you brought up the Klein Bottle and that was truly remarkable as an observation, I was very excited by that."
Yoshitsune looks to Mei with his first real smile of the evening. Having an apprentice chime in pushes past his false air of being unimpressed with the gathering. "Very good. Are you able to perform such practices? If so, I accept your volunteer spirit." He once more regards the room, "Do any of you have questions about what you should be doing, or how to proceed? Do you each have an idea of what you may do to further this matter along?"
"I am," Mei confirms. "Not with the skill of many others, and not with the ease that a Thyrsus would be able to manage," as in, it costs her mana, "but I'm a Disciple of Life, so I can do it. If my skills are needed, then they're available."
Dandelion speaks up. "I do have one further question--in working alongside vampires and the psychic medium on this matter, how freely can we share our strategy, plans and knowledge with them? They're involved in this matter already, and stand as potential allies. But, of course, we must mind the Precept of Secrecy."
Liezel's smile confirms for Mei what Yoshitsune already praised her for. "Exactly so. I in no way suggest we only take little tokens into battle to stave off infection and death. We are only too prepared if we expend more resources than are available in becoming prepared- time and Potentia being most likely victims of such folly."
"No, I've no questions. I'll-" She pauses and groans. "-be counting pennies to get the copper needed to make our trinkets. 1980 or older should work and is easy to find, make, and carry. I'll also start looking into ways to help ensure the demise of the swarms. Matter is plentiful in a cave. It shouldn't be hard- just hard to improvise."
"Thank you for your wisdom and leadership, Adamant Sage. It is appreciated by us and all we will save, though they do not know it."
"At the very least, you may provide shielding to those who will need it, apprentice. Even if we would keep you away from the conflict while you expand your training. This would be assistance and of use if Kitsune agrees." Yoshitsune then gestures vaguely at the room, "Sure some of you will have money to buy copper tubing from the hardware store. That is a worthy thing. Perfecting metal to leach away essence, I mean."
On the topic of Secrecy, Yoshitsune lets out a sharp sigh, frowning at Dandelion. "I do not believe it a secret we need to keep from them that we can deal with Spirits. Cross the Gauntlet. Safeguard Twilight, and so on. Or that we have means of dealing with spirits. I imagine speaking of klein bottling space-time would be to tip our hand too much. If only because we may want to bottle one of them in the future. Speak allegorically of Deadly Ground. After all, if this goes smoothly and they stand with us, they will never know what they are standing in regardless."
Mei briefly looks like she has thoughts to share on the topic that Dandelion brought up. Then she holds herself back. Then she does, in fact, opt to speak, "Pontiff wasn't particularly specific on that, was he?" she asks Dandelion with a faint smile. Someone's Apprentice is a fucking overachiever.
Mei gets a smile. "Careful, showing off like this is how you end up with a Factotum title someday. I'll remember that you're interested in the Lex."
"There is no guidebook to the perfect life, Apprentice. We must simply commit what we learn to the next generation, and die in our time. Pontiff did what he could during his." Yoshitsune then considers the room and states manner of factly, "Now it is time for sake." And with that, he turns and strides purposefully from the room towards the back offices. Esther, by contrast, slowly uncurls from the floor and dusts off her knees, "Thank you all for coming. Keep us informed about what you discover. You are all doing excellent work. Thank you."
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